


a rough start, but we'll make it work

by highfalutin baby birb (fevered_dreams)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: First Dates, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, Oblivious Lance (Voltron), the first chapter is pretty sfw if you just want to read that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-25
Updated: 2018-09-25
Packaged: 2019-07-17 11:23:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16094687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fevered_dreams/pseuds/highfalutin%20baby%20birb
Summary: Lance runs Shiro over with his bike, and he’s pretty sure Shiro should be more upset about it.“It looks good. Your face looks really good,” Lance blurted out. His embarrassment crept over him way too late, but it was slightly comforting to know that at least Lance hadn’t lost all understanding of normal social conventions.Thankfully, all Shiro did was laugh, and that was also nice. “I’m glad you think so. Your face looks really good too.”





	a rough start, but we'll make it work

**Author's Note:**

> just something for fun lol, first chapter will be sfw, but the second chapter will be explicit!

There really was something nice about living in the city. First of all, it was convenient. It was so easy for Lance to just roll out of bed like it was nothing, stomp around in his pajamas down the stairs and around the block for a cup of slow-roasted, French-pressed, freshly-ground coffee that tasted great and cost way less than anything from any other large, brand-named coffee shop. 

Not to mention, being in the city meant that no one even cared if Lance rolled out of his bed in his pajamas for coffee. There were just so many people around, so no one paid enough attention to anyone, including Lance or the little speck of dried toothpaste that sometimes got left behind when he was especially groggy.

At the same time, there really was something annoying about living in the city. There were just _so_ many people around. It was damn hot, being clustered together all the time, and, despite there being a small little eatery on every other step, it was so hard to find a place that gave out water for free. That was always disappointing because Lance still hadn’t gotten into the habit of carrying his own around, and he was always thirsty.

For a lot of things, but mostly water.

It had been months since he moved into the city, but Lance still hadn’t gotten used to telling people to hurry up and _move_. It was hard sometimes, being so kind and polite like his mom raised him to be, but it was also hard to constantly try to swerve around others, even when they should know better to walk on the left side of the road.

So, Lance figured he could hardly be blamed for accidentally running into a poor man while riding his bike to the library one day. The sidewalks were as crowded as ever, and all the city folk and their city cars clearly didn’t believe in the bike lane. No one seemed to believe in leash laws, either, and Lance would choose running into a person over running over a poor dog any day. It wasn’t the dog’s fault they had an irresponsible owner.

Of course, Lance would have preferred to have not run over anyone at all, but he supposed he couldn’t alway get what he wanted. At least he was wearing his helmet like a somewhat-responsible human being, so the fall wasn’t all that bad for him.

He couldn’t necessarily speak for the other guy.

“ _Shit_ , I am so sorry!” Lance exclaimed as soon as he was able to shimmy his way from out underneath his bike. He could feel a nasty stinging sensation across one of his sides, but he was sure that it’d be fine.

He was _not_ sure that this other guy was fine, though.

“Hey, are you ok?” Lance asked frantically. A few people gave them curious looks, but they kept on walking, and that was one more thing Lance hated about the city.

The other guy, a handsome man who was built like a small truck with the broadest shoulders and impressively tiny waist, shook himself slightly as he blinked, dazed. He looked up at Lance, opened his mouth, and, for a second, Lance was afraid _he_ had been the one to cause the long, deep scar that ran across the other’s man’s face.

Except, upon further inspection, the scar was clearly an old wound. Lance let out a small sigh of relief, but it was short-lived.

“What happened?” the man asked after some time. “I feel like I got ran over by something.”

“It was my fault,” Lance said. “I wasn’t paying attention, and I ran you over with my bike.”

“Oh,” the man said. “I guess that’ll do it.” He blinked again and looked at Lance with surprisingly  steady eyes. “Are you ok?”

“Oh, I’m fine,” Lance responded hastily. “It’s _you_ I’m worried about. Do you want to go to the hospital, or something? I can take you there. I mean, not on my bike, of course. It wouldn’t be able to hold us both, and I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be jostling here and there on a bike, anyway, if you weren’t feeling well. I also think it’s busted, but I can get a cab for you, my treat. I can even come with you, if you’d like.”

The man continued staring at Lance, and, honestly, he was beautiful. Lance wasn’t sure if it was a blessing or a curse, the fact that he had mowed down someone so attractive and _so_ his type, from the buff bod to the cute hair with that white tuft of bangs that looked so soft.

Probably a curse, actually.

The man’s eyes flickered down from Lance’s face to his side. “You’re bleeding.”

Lance followed the line of his gaze and found that he was, indeed, bleeding. He could see the hint of red seeping through his shirt - the nice one his grandmother had bought for him to commemorate his first day at college, Lance lamented - but it was strange because it didn’t feel like it hurt enough for him to be bleeding.

Though, Lance supposed that might’ve been in part due to the fact that he was starting to feel a bit light-headed. It was hard to focus on anything besides the other man’s face for too long, but that wasn’t the biggest loss ever.

“I guess I _am_ bleeding,” Lance finally choked out awkwardly. “How about you?”

“I’m fine,” the man said. Quickly, he pushed himself up off the ground, dusting himself off before offering a big hand with thick fingers out for Lance to hold. “What’s your name?”

“Lance.” He took ahold of the man’s hand, and his heart fluttered straight into the back of his mouth at being lifted up so easily by the poor stranger he had almost maimed. The stranger didn’t look all that upset about it, though.

“My name is Shiro,” the man said. They were still holding hands, Lance noticed belatedly. Hastily, he drew his hand away with a choked cough.

Shiro just smiled.

“Lance, I think maybe we should get _you_ to the hospital,” Shiro said gently. “I’ll go with you, just in case.”

Lance got the vague impression that this whole thing was going the exact opposite direction than it should’ve, but he was too distracted with Shiro’s sharp jawline to worry about it too much. Instead, he nodded and said, “Sure. Let me get us a cab.”

“It’s ok,” Shiro said, gently pushing down Lance’s hand that was trying to fiddle with his only slightly-cracked phone. “I got it.”

“I’ll pay you back,” Lance said, and he suddenly felt extremely adamant about it all past his encroaching brain fog.

“Alright,” Shiro said, and his voice was so smooth and soft. “I’ll hold you to that, Lance.”

In the end, Shiro didn’t get a cab. He drove Lance to the hospital in his own car instead. In hindsight, that was probably for the best considering the fact that no cab driver wanted someone who was bleeding into their car.

Still, Lance couldn’t help but ask, “Shiro, are you sure you’re ok with driving? I feel like I must’ve hit you pretty hard, you know, with my bike and all.”

Shiro chuckled and used a big, warm hand to gently push Lance back down into his seat. His other hand, Lance noticed, was made of metal. It looked good, though, especially clenched around the steering wheel.

Lance wondered what else it would look good clenched around before he quickly shook that thought out of his mind because, no matter how good Shiro looked, Lance had still hit him with his bike, and stuff like that didn’t usually go down very well in real life.

“I’m fine,” Shiro said. “I promise. How are _you_ feeling?”

“I feel ok. And I guess it makes sense that big, muscular men like you wouldn’t get too hurt by little ol’ me running into you,” Lance answered. “Sorry if I’m getting blood all over your seats, by the way.”

Shiro simply shrugged before glancing over at Lance, eyes soft and smile even softer. “It’s leather. It’ll wash off with enough elbow grease.”

“If you say so.”

Quiet fell over them, and Lance used that time to look at Shiro again, and, _God_ , Shiro really was handsome. He looked like every single man of Lance’s wet dreams molded into a single figure, and Lance couldn’t stop staring because what if this was just another really weird wet dream? They did have some weird beginnings, after all, like that one time another hunky man had chased Lance through a field of marshmallows before they fell into them so Lance could suck dream guy’s dick. So, maybe this was all another strange prelude-to-sex scene that Lance’s subconscious had managed to conjure up.

It was like, almost kill a man with a bike before getting head, or something.

It could’ve been weirder, in Lance’s opinion. In had been weirder, before.

Suddenly, Shiro’s voice interrupted Lance’s racing and only mildly inappropriate thoughts.

“Lance?” he asked, peering over at Lance again. “Are you sure you’re alright? You’ve been staring at me for awhile.”

“Oh,” Lance said dumbly. Even for as out of it as he felt, he still knew he sounded dumb, but he couldn’t help it. “It’s nothing. I just - couldn’t stop looking at your face.”

Shiro’s eyebrow popped up like Lance’s niece at the sound of dinner being set down onto the table, and Lance felt more endeared by it than he probably should have. “Oh? What about my face?”

“It looks good. Your face looks really good,” Lance blurted out. His embarrassment crept over him way too late, but it was slightly comforting to know that at least Lance hadn’t lost all understanding of normal social conventions.

Thankfully, all Shiro did was laugh, and that was also nice. “I’m glad you think so. Your face looks really good, too.”

Now Lance was convinced that this was a dream because this was too good to be true. So, he found no problem in playing along for a little bit. “I know. I’m pretty cute, aren’t I? I’m even cuter when I’m not bleeding into your car seats.”

Shiro chuckled again before letting his hand brush against Lance’s arm for the tiniest moment. “I bet you are.”

When they finally reached the hospital, Shiro quickly ushered Lance into the emergency department, where a few nurses fussed over him for some time before deciding that Lance was mostly fine.

“Just a little bleeding and a fair bit of dehydration, too,” one of the nurses tutted as she stuck Lance. Lance had gotten a few IV’s before, like when he had gotten his appendix removed as a child, but it still wasn’t a fun experience. He winced as it sank into the crook of his elbow.

Wordlessly, Shiro squeezed his other hand, barely there. It was enough, though.

After that, the nurse left then alone with a promise to check up on Lance later. They had already cleaned up his caked on blood, only to find that his wounds, as Lance suspected, really weren’t all that bad.

And, somehow, Shiro was completely fine, and Lance found that completely unfair. Then, he remembered that _he_ had been the one to run into Shiro, and he thought that maybe it was absolutely fair for Lance to be the one laying in a hospital bed, being given saline intravenously.

This whole ordeal was beginning to feel less and less like a dream by the second, but Lance remained optimistic, anyway. At least, he tried to, but it was hard to maintain it as Lance regained his senses with each drip of saline into his veins.

That, along with the fact that Lance was slowly coming to the realization that him trying to flirt with Shiro before had had actually happened in real life was more than enough to snap him out of his hopeful fantasy.

Eventually, once Lance was positively sure that this wouldn’t somehow devolve into hospital sex, Lance turned to Shiro was a heavy sigh. “Look, Shiro, I’m so, so sorry about this. First, I ran you over with my bike like an asshole, and then you even had to escort me to the hospital because I’m a child who can’t drink enough water, apparently. I am _beyond_ sure that this is not how you wanted to spend your Saturday afternoon.”

Once again, all Shiro did was smile and shrug, and Lance’s heart did that stupid ‘lodge myself right into your nasal cavities so you choke and die in front of one of the most gorgeous men you’ve ever seen’ thing again.

Lance was starting to think that he had bigger problems than being a bit dehydrated.

“It’s totally fine. I get it,” Shiro said. “Really. Accidents happen. I’m just glad that you’re not hurt that badly.”

“I still can’t believe that you’re totally fine,” Lance huffed before he quickly backtracked so he didn’t look like more of an asshole than he already did. “Anyway, thanks again for taking me to the hospital and stuff. I think I should be fine now, if you want to leave.”

Shiro cocked his head to the smile with a grin. “But I think we still have to discuss how you’re going to pay me back, don’t we?”

“Oh,” Lance said, and he felt like maybe things were finally starting to head back to normalcy, except there was a hint of a rumble to Shiro’s voice that left Lance all tingly and wanting. “Yeah, of course! Just let know! Though, I mean, I’m still in school and stuff, so I’m not sure how much money I can give you, but if you ever need someone to help out with something, I can be that someone!”

“Lance, I don’t want your money,” Shiro said softly.

“That’s cool,” Lance said. “Probably for the best, too. But, like I said, I can try to help you out other ways, too.”

Shiro looked at him and blinked, once. Lance blinked back, but he couldn’t keep it to just one. The hospital air made his eyes pretty dry, after all. There was also something a little intimidating about looking at someone as attractive as Shiro for too long.

After a few moments of blinking on Lance’s end, Shiro broke the silence.

“Lance,” he said quietly. “Do you still think my face looks good?”

If Lance wasn’t stuck in a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV and fitted with those fuzzy, non-slip socks that hospitals always gave, he probably would’ve recoiled away at the question. As it stood, he currently was all of those things, so the best Lance could do was flinch.

“What do you mean?” Lance stammered. He averted his gaze, and his face was burning hot. All the sterile white around him probably made him look even redder than he usual got when he blushed, and Lance couldn’t believe that he had thought any of this was a dream before.

“I mean, do you still find me attractive?” Shiro asked, leaning in slightly, and how did he still manage to look so good under all this harsh hospital flourescent lighting? Lance was sure he looked like a washed-out troll. “Now that you’re less dehydrated and not bleeding anymore?”

Lance swallowed. Even though he was getting so much water pumped into him, his throat suddenly felt so dry.

“Yeah,” Lance eventually forced out past the slimy heart stuck in his throat. “I do.”

Shiro blinked once more, expression bland. Then, his face erupted into a big, beaming smile that knocked Lance’s heart right back down into his chest so it could proceed to beat at an almost painful pace.

“I’m glad,” Shiro said, so, so beautifully. “I think you are, too.”

“Yeah?” Lance breathed.

“Yeah. So, I was thinking that you could pay me back with a date. How does that sound?” and Shiro had the audacity to sound shy, as if he really thought Lance would _ever_ turn him down. That was downright impossible, though, especially not when Shiro’s uncertain expression was just so cute.

“Are you sure?” Lance asked. “I mean, this wasn’t exactly the best meet-cute.”

“I think it was great,” Shiro said. “Besides you getting hurt, of course.”

“Of course,” Lance echoed. He peered down at Shiro’s fidgeting hands and slowly let his fingers brush against them, reveling in the way Shiro’s smile ticked upwards even more before continuing. “And I wouldn’t mind going on a date with you as recompense. It’s the least I could do for you, I figure, seeing how I’d enjoy it, too.”

This time, Shiro was the one to breathe out a tentative, “Yeah?”

“Oh, definitely.”

Shiro stayed with Lance for another half hour before Lance was kicked out in favor of someone who actually needed to be there. Afterwards, they set up their date, and Lance thought that, maybe, this was even better than any dream he could’ve had.

Of course, he still had to get a new bike, but that was a small price for the giddy feeling that he carried with him all the way home as Shiro’s name flashed across his phone.

**Author's Note:**

> please let me know what you think!
> 
> if you want to talk to me or want to know more about how you can support me, you can find me on [tumblr](https://fever-d-dreams.tumblr.com)


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